Aguero ruled out against Villa with groin injury

Sergio Aguero has been ruled out of Manchester City's game against Aston Villa on Wednesday but could be fit to feature in the last game of the season against West Ham.

The striker suffered a groin injury in City's 3-2 win over Everton at the weekend and while he said his substitution was a "precaution", manager Manuel Pellegrini decided it was too much of a risk to select him against Villa.

But he hopes that Aguero, who scored the goal that won City the title in 2012, could be fit for Sunday's clash with West Ham, when he may have the chance to repeat that feat.

City set for £50m fine and Europe blow

Manchester City are facing a reported £50 million fine and will have their Champions League squad restricted to 21 players next season after rejecting proposed sanctions relating to a breach of UEFA's Financial Fair Play regulations.

"Sergio Aguero couldn't recover 100 percent from his groin problem, so he is not in the squad list," Pellegrini said.

Aguero, who is City's 28-goal top scorer, has missed 18 of their last 31 games with calf and hamstring problems but Pellegrini hopes his latest spell on the sidelines will be brief.

He added: "We will see the way he improves during the week. I was not 100 percent sure if he was completely fit for tomorrow that is why I didn't want to have a risk with him but we will see during the week if he can play on Sunday."

"I just made the change because he is just coming from his injury and so he is not able to play 90 minutes but he didn't have any problems in the last game," the City manager added.

City's title rivals Liverpool dropped two points on Monday night when they surrendered a 3-0 lead to draw 3-3 with Crystal Palace.

Pellegrini believes the result is a warning to City not to underestimate their opponents ahead of their last two games.

"In the Premier League it is very difficult to win the games," he added. "You cannot be sure you are winning until the last minute. Maybe Crystal Palace didn't have anything to fight for but they were a very strong team and I am sure Aston Villa will be a very strong team for us."